Treatment of stockings and other knitted articles



Nov. 13, 1951 2,5 74,9 70

TREATMENT OF STOCKINGS AND OTHER KNITTED ARTICLES L- HELDMAIER Filed Jan. 15 1946 0 E ii EEET T V w g Q O Q .R\

A Try Patented Nov. 13, 1951 TREATMENT OF STOCKINGS AND OTHER KNITTED ARTICLE S Luis Heldmaier, Leicester;v England Application January 15, 1946; seriarne. 641,2511

In GreatBritain-January 26', 1945I 4 Claims (Cl. 2232- 76)= This, invention. relates toimprovements in the treatmentof stockings and: other shaped. textile articles, more particularly articles made 01"- nylon or a similar pclyamide'typelof. synthetic product, hereinafter referred to, for convenience, as Nylon stockings. The invention is also, however, applicable to the treatment or shaped textilearticles made of cellulose acetate and pure silk, as willbe. explained hereinafter.

It. is well: recognised that for. the satisfactory. production of-nylon stockings itis necessary to subject the stockingstoaheat and steam treatment in order to plasticise the material, this treatment being known in, the. trade as preboarding. In the; past, pro-boarding of, nylon. stock n s has been. carried out by. mounting: the stockings on. forms and. keeping, them, whilst still on the forms, in. a stationary steam, chamber, This-,however, is aslow process and, it has been proposed in my co-pending patent application.v No 622,019 filed October 12, 1945, now abandoned, to carry out this pre-boarding treatmentv as acontinuous process, the forms to receive. the stockings being carried; by an endless conveyor which is adapted. to take-the stockings on. the forms,-after suitable preliminary treatment if desired,- through a pro-boarding chamberin which they are subjected to the' action of. live steam. and heat.

The chief object of the present inventionis to. provide a modification: of, 'or improvement on. the. process of pre-boardingor plasticising, Shaped? textile articles described incur. said co-pendingv patent application, more particularly invrespect to the-manner of producing the additional heat required and of easily controlling the same.

The apparatus for pile-boarding or plasticising shaped textile articles, more particularly nylon stockings according to the presentiinvention; in-

cludes an endless conveyor carrying forms for the reception of. the shaped textile, articles and a pre-boarding or plasticising chamber through whichathearticles on the forms. are passed due to. movement of the conveyor,,and. is character.- ised ,by the provision: oh meansfon supplying.- live steam. to the preeboarding. orplasticising: chamber-and of one or more. gasheat'ers for supplementing the heat of the livesteam supplied to the-pre-boarding or plasticising chamber,

Preferably a fan is provided .to. circulate theli've steam andv hot air through. the pre-Jcoarding or plasticising chamber, conveniently in a. substantially. closed circuit, as hereinafter explained.

In order. that this i'nventibnmay be themore clearly understood and readily. carried into effect, reference may be made to. the. accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 illustrates diagrammatically the lay 2V out: or the completeplant for plasticising and finishing shaped. textile articles according tothe present. invention;

Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical: section through. the. gas? heated plasticising. chamber, and

Figure 3 is a plan View of the same.

Referring now to: Figure 1.. of the accompanying. drawings, the plant therein illustrated is, in general; similar to: that used? for the continuous finishing of stockings, and comprises an end.- less: conveyor chain". 16: carrying at. spaced intervalstlrafbrms (not shown)= overwhich. the stockings or other articles are placed; at the loading: position. It. The nylon stockings". having been placed oven the forms: (and stretched over the same; if desired), are first passed through a spray box: l-2 in which water; hot or. cold, is: sprayed on to bothsides of theisto'ckings' or the like, and are then allowed totraveli for some distance; as indicated atl3; to allow the water to: impregnate" thestock-ings or. the like thoroughly, and are then passed through. a further spray'box- M in which" theyare sprayed onboth: sides with hot water;- After leaving the spray boxlathe sto'eki'ngs or" the like on the forms are passed between a-p-airof sponge rubber or similar rollers- [5- which equ'a'lise the water sprayed on over'the whole'o'f the stockings or: the like. Afteremerging from between the rollers l5, the stockings or the like, still on the forms, are passed into a gas heated plasti'cising chamber [6; the construction and arrangement of which will be described more fully hereinafter.

After emerging from the plasticising' chamber, the stockings are passed through a drying 'chamher Z a-in which theyareifini'shed or. conditioned and are returned to theunloading point 2! where the stockings or the like are removed and'the: forms passonir to the adjacent loading point Hi. driedtin: the drying: chamber'zll. by means of a stream of: hot air, by'rneans: of electrically or steam heated panels in the walls of, the chamher, by means of the apparatus described in British Patent specificationv No. 458,550, or in any other? suitable: way;

Turning now: to: theplasticising chamber: it

and referring to Figures 21 and: 3,. this comprises arr-outer metal or 'likeeasing 3B which need only be quite narrow; lagged; as at. 31, with a suitable lagging, for-example silicate cotton, to preventthe-escape-of heat. A narro'wvertical opening 32 is provided at eachend" for the entrance andexit of the stockings on' the'forms, gap adjusting platesor'rollers 33-being providedon either sideof' the openings 32-t'oprevent as far' as The: stockings or the like may bepossible the escape of the steam and hot air within the plasticising chamber l6.

Mounted on top of the outer casing 30 is an electric motor 34 driving a fan 35 which is adapted to force hot air along a horizontal conduit 33 extending towards the front or entrance end of the chamber. The front end of the conduit 36 communicating with two vertical channels 31, one On each side of the opening 32, feeds hot air through the rear faces of these channels 31 which are perforated. At the further end of the plasticising chamber 16 there is a similar arrangement, the air and steam being sucked through perforations in the front walls of two vertical channels 38, one on each side of the exit gap 32. At their upper ends, the vertical channels 38 communicate with a horizontal conduit 39 similar to the conduit 36. Before reaching the fan, however, the steam and air are passed through a heater 4!] in which they are raised to the desired heat by means of the flame from a gas injector burner 4|.

Steam is injected into the plasticising chamber by means of sprays, one of which is shown at 50.

- The hot air and live steam is thus caused to flow in a closed circuit and the stockings or the like will be plasticised as they travel through the chamber I6.

- Furthermore, with a view to reducing the time taken to raise the forms to the desired temperature within the chamber 16, which time is, of course, wasted from the point of view of plasticising the stockings or the like since the forms are travelling continuously through the chamber, the forms may be pre-heated by passing them through preheaters 60 before they enter the chamber in any conventional way.

Gas-operated heaters have many advantages over infra-red lamps, for example they are less expensive in initial cost, cheaper to run and far less complicated. Furthermore, in the atmosphere of live steam in which the heaters must operate according to the present invention, they are less liable to breakdown since a gas-operated heater is practically immune from damage due to moisture, whereas electric infra-red lamps are not.

Gas heating also has the advantage that it is very simple to adjust and 1 control the temperature so that the plasticising may be carried out at the most efiicent temperature.

Although the present invention is more partic' ularly concerned with the plasticising of stockings and other articles made of nylon or a similar polyamide type of synthetic resin, the process may usefully be applied to the treatment of articles made of cellulose acetate and other products, more particularly articles made of animal products, notably pure silk, the articles so treated having improved qualities of texture, durability and appearance.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for pre-boarding shaped textile articles, more particularly nylon stockings, comprising an endless conveyor carrying forms for the reception of the shaped textile articles, a preboarding chamber through which the articles on the forms are passed due to movement of the conveyor, means for supplying live steam to the pre-boarding chamber, at least one gas heater for supplementing the heat of the live steam supplied to said chamber, and an air conduit disposed along the top of said chamber and communicating at each end with a pair of vertically disposed air channels arranged one on each side of the entrance and exit apertures of the pre-boarding chamber, and a fan adapted to circulate the steam and hot air of the chamber in a substantially closed circuit through said air conduit.

2. Apparatus for pre-boarding shaped textile articles, more particularly nylon stockings, comprising an endless conveyor carrying forms for the reception of the shaped textile articles, a preboarding chamber through which the articles on the forms are passed due to movement of the conveyor, means for supplying live steam to the pre-boarding chamber, at least one gas heater for supplementing the heat of the live steam supplied to said chamber, a conduit for conveying heated air, said conduit including a horizontal portion disposed along the top of said pre-boarding chamber and communicating vertical1ydisposed portions at each end of said pre-boarding chamber, said vertically-disposed portions being in communication with the interior of said chamber, and a fan adapted to circulate the steam and hot air of said pre-boarding chamber in a substantially closed circuit through said air conduit.

3. Apparatus for pre-boarding shaped textile articles, more particularly nylon stockings, comprising an endless conveyor carrying forms for the reception of the shaped textile articles, a pre-boarding chamber through which the articles on the forms are passed due to movement of the conveyor, means for supplying live steam to the pre-boarding chamber, at least one gas heater for supplementing the heat of the live steam supplied to said chamber, an air conduit for conveying heated air, said conduit including a horiz'ontally extending portion disposed along the top of said chamber and communicating verticallydisposed portions at each end of said pre-boarding chamber, the inner surfaces of said verticallydisposed portions being in communication with the interior of said chamber, and a fan adapted to circulate the steam and hot air of the chamber in a substantially closed circuit through said air conduit.

4. The apparatus as defined in claim 2, which includes an additional heating means, said additional heating means being adapted to preheat said forms on said endless conveyor prior to introduction of said heated forms into said pre-boarding chamber.

LUIS HELDMAIER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,047,039 Gee Dec. 10, 1912 1,114,966 Collis Oct. 27, 1914 1,489,223 Reumann et al Apr. 1, 1924 1,504,731 Wigglesworth et a1. Aug. 12, 1924 1,608,451 Wigglesworth Nov. 23, 1926 1,623,080 Ziock Apr. 5, 1927 1,627,529 Wigglesworth May 3, 1927 1,777,705 Stetten Oct. 7, 1930 1,926,694 Berger et a1 Sept. 12, 1933 1,942,729 Prosser et al Jan. 9, 1934 2,087,319 Gibbs July 20, 1934 2,197,788 Cissell Apr. 23, 1940 2,243,997 Berger et a1 June 3, 1941 2,244,472 Nydegger June 3, 1941 2,316,001 Kitzmiller Apr. 6, 1943 

